How to make the block face the player after procedure

I am making a mod with extra pumpkins for Halloween (have to prepare in advance!). I am trying to make the default pumpkin shearable into a carved version of itself. The issue I am encountering is that the only way to make the pumpkin face the direction of the player after it is sheard is to make the modded pumpkin rotate via S/W/N/E, when the vanilla Minecraft pumpkin doesn't rotate.

tldr: Is there a way to make a block face the player after replacing a different block via procedure without making the different block a rotating block?